Sunday, February 3, 2013

SMART METER NEWS

Have you heard about Smart Meters? You probably already have one on your home and don't know it. Are they dangerous to your health? The debate rages on with a lot of misinformation being fed to the public. Decide for yourself after taking a look at the info. Here's an article from the website of Dr. Mercola which discusses some of the latest findings and results of studies being done on this polarizing issue.

Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid

The featured report "Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid" highlights widespread misunderstandings about the alleged technological benefits of the new 'smart' utility meters, including disturbing misunderstandings among state and local government officials, energy policy experts, advocates for renewable energies, environmental nonprofits, and experts at the highest federal levels.

The report builds the case that beyond privacy, security, safety and potential public health risks of the present smart meters, the very basis on which the meters have been presented to communities may have been misrepresented — as the meters themselves actually have nothing to do, according to Dr. Schoechle, with achieving sustainability, developing a smart grid or even stimulating the economy.

The smart meters, he says, do not facilitate the integration of renewable technologies, or local or 'distributed' power generation, key elements of a 'smart grid' that could support a thriving new energy economy. And, "data to be collected by the smart meters, including intimate personal details of citizens' lives, isnot necessary to the basic purpose of the smart grid,such as supply/demand balancing, demand response (DR), dynamic pricing, renewable integration, or local generation and storage, as promoters of the meters, and uninformed parties, routinely claim."

These misunderstandings have unfortunately been perpetuated by media who regularly take industry-affiliated spokespeople at their word, and give the impression that smart meters of the kind being installed today are necessary components of a smart grid. In a PBS News Hour program3 (July 20, 2012), for example, the myth of energy efficiency from smart meters, and smart meters being necessary building blocks for a smart grid, were uncritically shared with PBS audiences, according to Duncan Campbell, Esq. who wrote the Foreword to the new report. Edward Randolph, Director of Energy for the California Public Utilities Commission, said:

"The vast majority of all of the input and evidence is that, you know, society is going to benefit from the smart meters. I mean, the energy-efficiency savings alone in the long term for the state of California is going to be a large economic benefit for most rate payers."

"Well, a smart meter is really a basic building block of a smarter grid. And a smart grid is being built all over the United States to connect solar power and other pieces of intermittent renewable power into the electric system"

Dr. Schoechle, author of "Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid," however, calls the smart meters being rolled out across the U.S. "a canard — a story or hoax based on specious claims about energy benefits…" He says the right investments for a true smart grid have been delayed by the focus on new meters.

The U.S. govt. has put a lot of money and effort into the installation of Smart Meters with little insight into the health dangers and exposure to outside hackers. Get informed and help to keep our country a place where free Americans still have the right to choose what happens in their own homes!